What are derivatives?

Derivatives, such as options or futures, are financial contracts which derive their value off a spot price timeseries, which is called the underlying". For examples, wheat farmers may wish to contract to sell their
harvest at a future date to eliminate the risk of a change in prices by that date. Such a transaction would
take place through a forward or futures market. This market is the derivative market", and the prices on
this market would be driven by the spot market price of wheat which is the underlying". The terms
contracts" or products" are often applied to denote the specific traded instrument.The world over,
derivatives are a key part of the financial system. The most important contract types are futures and
options, and the most important underlying markets are equity, treasury bills, commodities, foreign
exchange and real estate.

What is a forward contract?

In a forward contract, two parties agree to do a trade at some future date, at a stated price and quantity. No
money changes hands at the time the deal is signed.

Why is forward contracting useful?

Forward contracting is very valuable in hedging and speculation.The classic hedging application would be
that of a wheat farmer forward-selling his harvest at a known price in order to eliminate price risk.
Conversely, a bread factory may want to buy bread forward in order to assist production planning without
the risk of price fluctuations.

If a speculator has information or analysis which forecasts an upturn in a price, then she can go long on the
forward market instead of the cash market. The speculator would go long on the forward, wait for the price
to rise, and then take a reversing transaction. The use of forward markets here supplies leverage to the
speculator.

What are the problems of forward markets?

Forward markets worldwide are afflicted by several problems:

(a) lack of centralisation of trading,

(b) illiquidity, and
(c) counterparty risk.

In the first two of these, the basic problem is that of too much flexibility and generality. The forward market
is like the real estate market in that any two consenting adults can form contracts against each other. This
often makes them design terms of the deal which are very convenient in that specific situation for the
specific parties, but makes the contracts non-tradeable if non-participants are involved. Also the phone
market" here is unlike the centralisation of price discovery that is obtained on an exchange. Counterparty
risk in forward markets is a simple idea: when one of the two sides of the transaction chooses to declare
bankruptcy, the other suffers. Forward markets have one basic property: the larger the time period over
which the forward contract is open, the larger are the potential price movements, and hence the larger is
the counter- party risk.

Even when forward markets trade standardized contracts, and hence avoid the problem of illiquidity, the
counterparty risk remains a very real problem.

What is a futures contract?

Futures markets were designed to solve all the three problems listed above of forward markets. Futures
markets are exactly like forward markets in terms of basic economics. However, contracts are standardised
and trading is centralised, so that futures markets are highly liquid. There is no counterparty risk (thanks to
the institution of a clearinghouse which becomes counterparty to both sides of each transaction and
guarantees the trade). In futures markets, unlike in forward markets, increasing the time to expiration does
not increase the counter party risk.

What is the difference between Forward and futures contract?

Forward Contract

Futures Contract

Nature of
Contract

Non-standardized / Customized
contract

Standardized contract

Trading

Informal Over-the-Counter market;

Private contract between parties

Traded on an exchange

Settlement

Single - Pre-specified in the contract

Daily settlement, known as Daily mark to

market settlement and Final Settlement.

Risk

Counter-Party risk is present since no

guarantee is provided

Exchange provides the guarantee of

settlement and hence no counter party risk.

What are various types of derivatives traded at NSE ?

There are two types of derivatives products traded on NSE namely Futures and Options

Futures: A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in
the future at a certain price. All the futures contracts are settled in cash.

Options: An Option is a contract which gives the right, but not an obligation, to buy or sell the underlying at
a stated date and at a stated price. While a buyer of an option pays the premium and buys the right to
exercise his option, the writer of an option is the one who receives the option premium and therefore obliged
to sell/buy the asset if the buyer exercises it on him.

Options are of two types - Calls and Puts options :

"Calls" give the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy a given quantity of the underlying asset, at a
given price on or before a given future date.

"Puts" give the buyer the right, but not the obligation to sell a given quantity of underlying asset at a given
price on or before a given future date. All the options contracts are settled in cash.

Further, the Options are classified based on type of exercise. At present the Exercise style can be
European or American.

American Option - American options are options contracts that can be exercised at any time upto the
expiration date. Options on individual securities available at NSE are American type of options.

European Options - European options are options that can be exercised only on the expiration date. All
index options traded at NSE are European Options.

What are exotic" derivatives?

Options and futures are the mainstream workhorses of derivatives markets worldwide. However, more
complex contracts, often called exotics, are used in more custom situations. For example, a computer
hardware company may want a contract that pays them when the rupee has depreciated or when computer
memory chip prices have risen. Such contracts are custom-built" for a client by a large financial house in
what is known as the over the counter" derivatives market. These contracts are not exchange-traded. This
area is also called the OTC Derivatives Industry".

An essential feature of derivatives exchanges is contract standardisation. All kinds of wheat are not
tradeable through a futures market, only certain defined grades are. This is a constraint for a farmer who
grows a somewhat different grade of wheat. The OTC derivatives industry is an intermediary which sells the
farmer insurance which is customised to his needs; the intermediary would in turn use exchange-traded

derivatives to strip off as much of his risk as possible.

Why are derivatives useful?

The key motivation for such instruments is that they are useful in reallocating risk either across time or
among individuals with different risk-bearing preferences.

One kind of passing-on of risk is mutual insurance between two parties who face the opposite kind of risk.
For example, in the context of currency fluctuations, exporters face losses if the rupee appreciates and
importers face losses if the rupee depreciates. By forward contracting in the dollar-rupee forward market,
they supply insurance to each other and reduce risk. This sort of thing also takes place in speculative
position taking, the person who thinks the price will go up is long a futures and the person who thinks the
price will go down is short the futures.

Another style of functioning works by a risk-averse person buying insurance, and a risk-tolerant person
selling insurance. An example of this may be found on the options market : an investor who tries to protect
himself against a drop in the index buys put options on the index, and a risk-taker sells him these options.
Obviously, people would be very suspicious about entering into such trades without the institution of the
clearinghouse which is a legal counterparty to both sides of the trade.

In these ways, derivatives supply a method for people to do hedging and reduce their risks. As compared
with an economy lacking these facilities, it is a considerable gain.

The ultimate importance of a derivatives market hence hinges upon the extent to which it helps investors to
reduce the risks that they face. Some of the largest derivatives markets in the world are on treasury bills (to
help control interest rate risk), the market index (to help control risk that is associated with fluctuations in
the stock market) and on exchange rates (to cope with currency risk).

What are various instruments available for trading in Futures and Options?
Index Futures

Index Options

Stock Futures

Stock Options

Currency Futures and

Interest Rate Futures

When were Index Futures and Index options made available for trading at NSE?

Index Futures were made available for trading at NSE on June 12, 2000 and Index Options were made
available for trading at NSE on June 4, 2001. S&P CNX Nifty Futures was the first index on which index
futures and options was introduced.

When were Stock Futures and stock options made available for trading at NSE?

Stock Futures were made available for trading at NSE on July 2, 2001 and stock options were made available
for trading at NSE on November 9, 2001.

When was currency futures made available for trading at NSE ?

Currency futures on the USD-INR pair exchange rate was made available for trading on August 29, 2008.

When was interest rate futures made available for trading at NSE?

Interest Rate futures were made available for trading on August 31, 2009.

Are there different trading segments at NSE which offer futures and options instruments with
different types of underlying?

Yes, two different trading segments at NSE offer different kind of instruments in futures and options. The
futures and options with the underlying as index and stock are traded on the Futures and Options segment
while the futures and options with the underlying as exchange rate of currencies or the coupon of a notional

bond (in case of interest rate derivatives) are traded on the Currency derivatives segment.

Why Should I trade in derivatives?

Futures trading will be of interest to those who wish to:

1)Invest - take a view on the market and buy or sell accordingly.
2)Price Risk Transfer- Hedging - Hedging is buying and selling futures contracts to offset the risks of
changing underlying market prices. Thus it helps in reducing the risk associated with exposures in
underlying market by taking a counter- positions in the futures market. For example, the hedgers who
either have security or plan to have a security is concerned about the movement in the price of the
underlying before they buy or sell the security. Typically he would take a short position in the Futures
markets, as the cash and futures price tend to move in the same direction as they both react to the same
supply/demand factors.
3)Arbitrage - Since the cash and futures price tend to move in the same direction as they both react to the
same supply/demand factors, the difference between the underlying price and futures price called as
basis. Basis is more stable and predictable than the movement of the prices of the underlying or the
Futures price. Thus arbitrageur would
4)Predict the basis and accordingly take positions in the cash and future markets.
5)Leverage- Since the investor is required to pay a small fraction of the value of the total contract as
margins, trading in Futures is a leveraged activity since the investor is able to control the total value of the
contract with a relatively small amount of margin. Thus the Leverage enables the traders to make a larger
profit or loss with a comparatively small amount of capital.
Options trading will be of interest to those who wish to:
1)Participate in the market without trading or holding a large quantity of stock
2)Protect their portfolio by paying small premium amount

Benefits of trading in Futures and Options

1)Able to transfer the risk to the person who is willing to accept them
2)Incentive to make profits with minimal amount of risk capital
3)Lower transaction costs
4)Provides liquidity, enables price discovery in underlying market
5)Derivatives market are lead economic indicators.
6)Arbitrage between underlying and derivative market.
7)Eliminate security specific risk.

What are the benefits of trading in Index Futures compared to any other security?

An investor can trade the 'entire stock market' by buying index futures instead of buying individual securities
with the efficiency of a mutual fund.